Saturday, September 10, 2011

In the beginning, there were jobs. Men and women performed jobs. They had jobs because there was a demand for their specific type of service or the things that they produced. Men and women could charge affordable prices and make profits. Business owners employed people to make items or provide services that were in demand. Everyone tried to make a profit so that they could live comfortably. Not ungodly profits but fair profits. Ungodly profits tend to introduce competition and drive prices down. That''s how all of this used to work. Back when we had free market capitalism.

Then the government got involved. First they started taking small amounts of taxes and then later, larger amounts of taxes. Then they started creating new taxes and taking even more. They forced insurance costs upon business owners. State and local governments took all that they could. Big and small government introduced regulation and bureaucracy which forced lower profit margins and compliance was costly and burdensome. Because the government does not create anything usable, they quickly became a drain on society. They plundered everyone's profits. Their bank, the Federal Reserve, helped destroy the currency that people relied on. It helped create inflation which is another hidden tax by creating too much debt and currency. Government then demanded that business pay for health insurance. Jobs left. Small business owners said fuck it. Big corporations took manufacturing to places where they could make a fair profit again without everything being stripped bare by government. And then government scratched it's head and said, "what's wrong?" as though they had nothing to do with it.

In fact, the only thing wrong with free market capitalism is government. Sans government, society and the free market perform admirably.

We cannot get our way of life back until we rid ourselves of this cancer we call government. Giant agencies like the Department of Energy that waste 100's of billions of dollars providing absolutely nothing. Ask somebody what the Department of Energy does and you will get a shoulder shrug. At the most critical juncture in the economic life of this country- a point where bankers and government have absolutely raped this country and stolen it's wealth- we elected a statist who wants even more.

Don't take it personally- Obama simply lied about who he was. That's all. He came off like a centrist on purpose to get as many votes as possible. He has tried to turn us into a full blown socialist state and that's ok too. In fact, we may become bankrupt far sooner and quicker because of Obama. I call that a blessing. I prefer quick death to slow death.

To call Obama and his administration delusional is entirely too simplistic. He doesn't know the first thing about government and it's role in creating or destroying jobs. Obama and his ilk are job destroyers. They think they can just throw money, i.e. stimulus around, and like Miracle Grow- jobs will materialize. They don't understand people or free markets. And that's what takes this history full circle.

Business owners and people work to make a fair profit. They do not work so that they can take all of their profits and turn them over to a government that has gone berserk. Free markets work the best when government gets the fuck out of them. The more government interferes in free markets with crippling taxes and regulation that force places insurance and gobs of it, unemployment, workman's comp, liability packages, health packages- we become socialists. People quit working. The system freezes up and vapor locks because there is no point in working for layers of government intent on regulating, taxing, and stealing your work product. Workers just say fuck it. Businesses just say fuck it. Low level government employees just say fuck it because they don't make anything related to GDP anyway. Government supervisors allow piss poor performance because they aren't out anything. In government, everyone has their head in the trough. Tragically, the only guy that gets screwed in this entire performance is the taxpayer. And unfortunately or fortunately perhaps- the taxpayer is all but dead.

We are out of jobs and we are out of taxpayers. The demographics are such that the younger generations can't support the older, larger generation. That's what happens when a society implodes. It's really not much of a mystery. We can't pay the debt or the tax bill. We don't have jobs and this government of ours has absolutely ruined any chance of changing that structural flaw. After wasting trillions, Obama wants to waste another 500 billion more on a jobs problem that is so fundamentally flawed- structurally damaged- that it cannot be fixed. Who did that? Who ruined the American dream?

It doesn't really matter anymore. There is no solution in beating a dead horse like Obama. Those of us who can do something- do it. Those who can't- teach. Obama doesn't understand Economics 101. He was probably smoking dope before class. There cannot be an American renaissance until we address the structural job killing policies of a government gone insane. We cannot begin to address the return of jobs stateside until we fix all of the bureaucratic regulation, policies and trade policies, taxes, insurance, that drove businesses offshore in the first place. Piece by miserable piece. Maybe if we can identify all of those broken parts and fix them- we can get government the hell out of our lives and return a few jobs to our shores.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Jim in Minnesota. Thank you. Like reading chinese fortune cookies and adding "in bed" to the end of each fortune. Jim adds this adjective to the front of the word, "jobs."

Hey, you know, this is really a great idea: any time a politician says jobs, just put the word blow in front. It makes them all sound like geniuses."I am sending this Congress a plan that you should pass right away. It's called the American Blow Jobs Act. There should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation."

I've been kind of bored lately. Ideally, what I've been looking for is a job that pays giant gobs of money with very little effort, flexible hours. That sort of thing.

Like my friend Billy Moonbat says, "The most amount of money with the least amount of work." That's what everybody is after. Using those parameters, I think most people immediately think of lawyers or government workers. I've ruled both of those things out. Going to school and getting a law degree is far more work than actually practicing as an attorney. Billing people ridiculous amounts of money for talking to them. The government "work" idea is sound except that my retirement checks would stop. A Federal job might work. Standing around at courthouse checkpoints, with plastic name tags, that pays good here in Boise. Only in America can you make 60-70k a year to stand around bullshitting and tell people to take their belts off. Wave those thingys around.

The problem is the job itself. A job like that screams, "I have given up." I am no more useful than this useless job. I am willing to do anything. I have no more utility other than to stand here with one foot in the grave, waving this metal detector around as though somebody is going to show up at the courthouse with a bomb. You might as well wear a stained Marlboro tee-shirt, sweatpants, and slip on loafers. Announce to the world that you have formally given up.

So I've been focused on the private sector. But there are serious drawbacks. Not only do private employers expect you to show up every day on time- but they actually expect some level of productivity from you. You can't just leave on a road trip or not come to work. You have to ask for permission, time off. That sort of thing. All those years of government "work" have spoiled me.

How hard could being an astronaut be? Wearing shiny suits, floating around, pushing buttons, drinking Tang. How much do astronauts make? Maybe they have astronaut unions...

Ya know, I think I will look into this. Maybe it's part of Obama's stimulus plan. It's gotta be better than standing around the courthouse talking about the good old days and scanning some granny's purse...geezus...I'm just not ready to give up yet.

I couldn't bring myself to listen to President Obama last night. I just couldn't. Not because I can't stand the man- but because he is the most spineless nin-com-poop I have ever heard talk.

Does this guy ever take a stand on anything? Apparently not. He won't prosecute corrupt bankers, when he wants higher taxes on the wealthy- he ends up caving in because he needs their financial support. His latest plan is the same old plan that didn't work the first time. Hey, I got an idea! Let's spend another half a trillion that we don't have and get us some jobs!

Remember those promises? The first stimulus and how it was supposed to keep a lid on unemployment? We all see how well that worked out. It didn't. Companies like Solyndra took the stimulus money, kept it and declared bankruptcy, and laid off all 1100 workers.

So Obama's big plan is- if something doesn't work the first time, let's try it again. And then, because the economy can't possibly be your fault- make sure you deride Congress and berate them a little. Blame them for your inability to lead. Like I said. Nothing new here. The same old Obama. Glad I didn't waste the time...

I'm glad the GOP didn't offer a rebuttal to the plan. Nothing more needed to be said.

President Obama is completely devoid of personal courage. I have said it many times. It takes courage to take a stand. Obama waffles on everything. This guy doesn't have personal courage. The good and the great have personal courage. Those without personal courage are relegated to the dust bins of history.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

A few days ago I wrote a blog about a solar panel company called Solyndra. Solyndra received about 535 million dollars in stimulus money which I STILL believe is illegal despite a government who now thinks they can use taxpayer money for any fucking reason they deem appropriate. http://stimuluswatch.org/2.0/recipients/view/48897/solyndra-inc

Solyndra took out bankruptcy. The owner of Solyndra is a huge supporter of Obama, George Kaiser. This guy is worth 10 billion. Ah the greedy and elite. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Kaiser Kaiser's claims on Solyndra (via his Argonaut shell) means- he gets paid first. If anything was left over- the taxpayers would get some remainder. That's the theory.

Let me tell you what this is. You take money entrusted to you by taxpayers and use it to provide "stimulus" to prop up a bankrupt PRIVATE company owned by a billionaire campaign bundler friend of yours. You allow your billionaire friend to recover his money first. That way he will continue to write out those campaign contribution checks and get all of his cronies to do the same. So in effect, aren't you just kind of laundering taxpayer money through a bankrupt company and campaign contributor and getting clean money out? At best, the government has no business giving away our money to businesses failing or not. The whole idea of sending tax dollars -willy nilly- to anyone- allows government to pick the winners, determine the losers, and make sure their buddies get paid off. http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3247350212550914879&postID=8350373922788758339

Who in their right mind would allow this? Why do we allow this? Stimulus. It's like a giant fraudulent slush fund with nobody policing how it gets distributed. By the way, were any of these stimulus recipients required to pay back taxpayers? Muhahahaha...

I'd love to see what Solyndra spent that 535.5 million on. Can we see the books?

Are we ever going to get some sort of handle on this insane shit- this idea that government can just give away our money to anyone they choose without any fucking accountability, EVER? Why do we continue to pay taxes?

In case you're interested Bruce...MIT's Jonathan Gruber and the ObamaCare fraud;"Gruber began negotiating a sole-source contract with the Department of Health and Human Services in February of 2009, for which he was ultimately paid $392,600. The contract called for Gruber to use his statistical model for evaluating alternatives "derived from the President's health reform proposal." It was not a research grant, but rather a consulting contract to advise the White House Office of Health Reform, headed by Obama's health care czar Nancy-Ann DeParle, to "develop proposals" for health care reform."http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/how-the-white-house-used_b_421549.html
Maybe they can be stopped before they cart off the WH furniture...but it ain't lookin promising.
There is a level of palpable hatred among the populace that has built up over the last ten years or so for all things academic/scientific/scholarly/elitist...this is one of the reasons why.
They have all become nothing but common thieves.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

I used to work with a guy. A guy named Dave. Dave was a big believer in diplomacy. Caution always got the better of Dave, well usually, with one notable exception.

Dave hated the United States Postal Service. He gave those bastards no quarter.

In the small town we lived in- the post office refused to deliver the mail. Instead they made thousands of us burn the gas to get to the post office. Upon arrival, one was greeted by a sinister post office parking lot designed on bar room napkins by valley auto body shop owners. In fact, there is a rumor, that those same frame straighteners submitted their napkin drawings along with an envelope of cash to the architect in charge of planning the new post office. It is common knowledge that those same auto body men encouraged the beginnings of the farmer's market on Main Street- but I digress.

So it was that not only did those USPS bastards refuse to deliver- but they made us pay them rent for boxes. A double insult. Then we were forced to navigate the daily parking lot demolition derby that claimed 50 wrecks during the very first month of operation.

That Dave hated those postal barbarians is the sort of thing that legends are made of. In fact, I believe, he actually wrote a letter to the editor about the USPS in the local newspaper. It was edited for profanity which cut the letter's over all length by about two thirds. However, a fragment of the letter remained and it was printed. The women at the post office read that letter. They may have cut it out and taped it on the wall in the break room.

One day soon after that letter was published, I walked into the post office with Dave. "So you're the guy that wrote that letter" they leered as Dave and I walked in the front door.. Ever the defiant one, Dave seemed almost proud to take responsibility for the deed. Secretly, I admired Dave. Publicly, I always used the entrance to the rear of the building after that.

There are people who believe in coincidence and I must admit, I do not number among them. I have been reading that the USPS is bankrupt and can't pay their bills. Six hundred thousand unionized employees are about to feel some pain. http://www.fitsnews.com/2011/09/06/going-postal/ The USPS is withering in intensive care. Somehow, I don't think this is all coincidence.

Monday, September 5, 2011

About a month ago, I bought a beautiful blue suede and chrome Harley Davidson Road King. Initially, this was a looking bike, not a riding bike. I stared at it a lot. After a week of so, I actually decided to take it out and ride it. It does everything I ask of it. If only God made women this beautiful and obedient- life would be perfect. Free of divorce court. Blissful and serene.

Well, unfortunately life ain't that way.

Each day, during my travels, I run into this goofy kid. He's 21. He is a representative slice of Americana. He doesn't know anything about politics, money, or central bank crooks. Like most twenty one year olds he is preoccupied with only a few things. Getting loaded, slutty older chicks with tattoos, and unfortunately- one 2007 blue suede Road King.

Last week, the goofball asks me how old I am and I tell him that I am 50. He says he was watching an episode of Beavis and Butthead. On that particular episode he said, Beavis and Butthead had decided to be kind to old people that were about to die. That way, they surmised, when these old people died they would leave them money and stuff for all of the kind acts and chores that they did for them before they croaked. So the goofball loves the Road King. Each day he asks me if he can come to my house and do some chores. Then he laughs like a hyena. Today he sat on the bike smoking a cigarette and asked if he could start it. I told him to get the fuck off the bike.

Maybe, I tell his smart ass, I will outlive you. He doesn't laugh as hysterically when I say that.

I gotta tell ya. I like that goofy kid. There's a tremendous amount of innocence about not worrying about anything except what that slutty chick with the high heels might be wearing today. I remember being that stupid and harmless once. Come to think of it, I kind of liked it.

Maybe like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, I will leave him the Road King. Maybe I will have him come over tomorrow and haul some firewood into the basement. Next to the stove. Neatly stacked. Maybe I can talk him into this for the next 30 years or so.

Remember those "experts on CNBC" claiming that the gold bubble had burst just a couple of weeks ago? Seems they were full of shit. Crazy bloggers like me, and other "non-experts" laughed. Sooner or later...it may dawn on people that the fiat currency and debt markets are the bubbles. Gold back where it was. In fact it made new highs. In the 1920.00 range. http://www.allamericanindex.com/commodityfutures/Metals

Maybe some 'shrooms. I had to cut and paste this. Having spent most of my life outdoors- I am able to spot bullshit when I see it. The following article is complete rubbish. Further proof that BSU students have been drunk all weekend since the big win against Georgia. Are you sure it wasn't a saber toothed tiger? Muhahahaha!

Big cats spotted near BSU campus

by KTVB

KTVB.COM

Posted on September 5, 2011 at 4:04 PM

Updated today at 4:04 PM

BOISE -- Turns out bad grades aren't the only thing Boise State students have to protect against.
The university is warning students, faculty and staff to be on the lookout for a bobcat and a mountain lion on or near the BSU campus.
The university says someone reported seeing a bobcat at about 9:45 p.m. Sunday on the west end of campus near the Greenbelt.
Also, someone spotted a mountain lion at 9th and Myrtle streets, just north of campus.
If you see one of the big cats on campus, you're asked to stay away and call campus security.

Obama's uncle and aunt are both here illegally. They receive subsidized housing and social security benefits. What do you want to wager they have used food stamps? (Obama's aunt) They contributed nothing in terms of taxes- prior to this.

Massachusetts apparently accepted some bogus social security card and issued Obama's uncle a driver's license. Massachusetts is government. Immigration or ICE has refused to prosecute or deport these two freeloaders. That is government. The President ignores the situation, I suppose because, he can simply state that it is none of his business.

Did you read the part about Obama's uncle paying taxes?? He doesn't! He gets free taxpayer money in the form of refunds! And the dude works in a liquor store...omg...no wonder the guy has worked there for five years. And gets busted for DUI?

Obama's aunt and uncle represent every thing that is wrong with our country. Why would we expect anything different from the President?

The problem with old bastards like me is simple. I spent my first 25 or 30 years chasing alcohol and drug induced criminals around. Man, without booze and drugs, we wouldn't have an economy at all. No bureau of prisons, no army of lawyers, judges and court clerks, cops, DEA, FBI, or all that other government waste. No rehab. Booze and drugs are big business. But I digress.

I can't chase drug induced idiots around anymore. It's just not do-able. I've seen people re-invent themselves. I even know what I want to do. I am just not sure that at age 50- I want to go play nice with teachers that are 20 years younger than me and get new credentials. All of those bullshit courses, humanities, fucking math you'll never use.

Enter the education trap.

In California, two years ago in the alcohol/drug rehab biz, I actually saw employment ads offering 10 bucks an hour in exchange for your master's degree and 5 years of experience. I am not kidding. How do you like that return on capital?

You wanna hear something really funny? I heard a CEO state recently that his company does not really care what your bachelor's degree is in. They just want to know that you can start something and then finish it. Proof positive that virtually everyone realizes that the substance of education, that vast majority of shit which you will learn and immediately forget, is not really important. Sitting in classrooms for 4 years and taking orders is far more important. Interesting. Of course that makes sense.

There's one other slight problem. College is expensive even though nobody pays for it anymore. It has become socialized. The government, bless their hearts, have rewarded all of those left thinking liberal faculty members with free money for higher salaries. Gone are the days when you could actually pay the tuition. Now days, without a job, you cannot pay the ridiculously high tuition. You have no life because there are no jobs. So you go to school. You borrow the money, play nice for four years, and then find you can't get a job when you are done. Now you owe some five figure, maybe six figure gawd awful loan and now the government wants you to pay them back- government vultures waiting to extort a 40-50% tax bite out of your hide for the next 50 years.

It reminds me of fattening cattle and then slaughtering them. The cattle think they have it good for awhile- right up until they figure out why they were getting all that free corn. Pow.

So the student loan bubble, over a trillion and now higher than all credit card debt, is another bubble ready to burst.We are going to have the most intelligent society ever assembled- a society which accomplishes virtually nothing because we have no jobs. That's the world I find myself in. Like some Brooks Hatlen from the "Shawshank Redemption" bagging groceries at age 70. Except that they make you do it yourself now.

So the education trap is a theory that there will be a job waiting for you after you've spent a shit ton of money and a few years of your life. You'll have a bunch of debt and a vulture government more than happy to strip about half of your earnings away forever just in case you do get lucky and land a decent paying job. Just thinking about all of that has suddenly made me feel grateful once again. I'm going to close that Craig's List help wanted page and surf on over to my bank statement. Make sure my retirement check got deposited.

This is the kind of shit that makes my ass burn. In a nutshell. A solar panel company in California was going bankrupt. Solyndra got 400 million dollars in tax payer loans. When that wasn't enough, Obama's pals were called on to funnel more money into this crappy company. Only they were made a promise. If the company fails we will give you back your money and make you whole.

You have to be a special kind of person to be Obama. To become Obama, this is what you need to do. Have absolutely no interest in anything or anybody other than yourself. Vacation and play lots of golf. Lie. Cut deals with billionaires and bankers. Time and time again, sell out the taxpayers. Do anything to get re- elected. Anything. Sell out any last hint of ethics and morals.

Do you know how difficult it is to find someone like this? Not hard at all. Our prisons are full of people like this.

The unemployment report on Friday showed zero jobs had been added to the economy. That of course is shaded high. The Bureau of Labor Statistics or BLS manipulates the number week after week. Always making the employment picture appear rosier than it truly is. So what's the real unemployment rate?

Two other really dreadful things have happened. People are finding part time jobs without benefits. And the salaries of the full time jobs that they do find- have been reduced.

I land in the "never have been counted" unemployed group. I'd like to work but find myself looking at slave wages with no benefits. It makes little sense to me, to subject myself to 40 hours a week of tyranny to make a wage I made 30 years ago and turn an even larger piece over to the government.

I find Labor Day this year a little ironic. Like celebrating something that no longer exists here. Do they have Labor Day in China or Mexico? If not- they should think about starting one.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Why would people shun the returns of gold- 35% so far this year- for a guaranteed losing investment in a CD or a US Treasury? The answer is simple.

People really are stupid and fearful. Please forgive me, there is simply no other way to describe the condition. If real inflation is actually 4-5% (which it is) then any investment yielding less than that is a guaranteed loser. Any investment that includes taxes- is a double loser.

The world has experienced gold bull markets- but nothing like the one it's in now. Therein lies the key- and I can summarize it for you in just a few sentences. The world's banks and fiat money systems are all the same. One giant squid. They took what money actually existed and leveraged it geometrically. The money they leveraged, which now represents debt, does not exist nor will it ever exist. The world's banks are broke. Were they forced to use mark to market accounting methods like every one else- their assets would not simply be reduced- their outstanding leveraged debt would simply be exposed and bankrupt them. Therefore, all that is left for the world's central bankers to do is to print money and try to inflate all that accumulated debt away. The problem is- is that all that debt is vast. Far greater than you would imagine. The other problem is that inflating it all away will take many years. Decades.

So as the world's central bankers counterfeit and swell the fiat currency supply- the value of gold increases. Holders of currency get their asses kicked. Holders of gold preserve their wealth.

If governments and central bankers chose not to try and inflate debt away by printing money- we would have a deflationary scenario and most likely a full blown, worldwide, depression. The value of gold would go down just as the fiat money supply went down. However, savers would be rewarded with good buys and smart rates of return. The debtors would get their asses kicked as too few dollars are chasing large debt piles. Call that justice if you will- but the FED doesn't give two shits about justice. That isn't part of their "dual" mandate.

So if the world cannot solve the debt bubble, which it clearly it hasn't been able to for least the last four years, then gold and precious metals can only go higher. In the past, we could grow our way out of recessions and depressions. This time we can't. The debt quite honestly- far exceeds anybody's futuristic capacity to pay it off. The debt is too enormous and the bankers refuse to fully disclose it. It is that simple. That scenario has never existed until now. The banks screwed the pooch.

I snipped this comment and link from another site since, It is very appropriate this time.

Nassim Taleb: The American Economy Will Transfer $5 Trillion To Banker Pay And Bonuses Over The Next 10 Years
That $5 trillion dollars is not money invested in building roads, schools, and other long-term projects, but is directly transferred from the American economy to the personal accounts of bank executives and employees. Such transfers represent as cunning a tax on everyone else as one can imagine. It feels quite iniquitous that bankers, having helped cause today’s financial and economic troubles, are the only class that is not suffering from them – and in many cases are actually benefiting.
Read more: http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/taleb1/English#ixzz1Wpa7gwDf

This time, there is simply no escape for the world's bankers except default. At that time, the world will have to reset. You will want to own precious metals when that happens. When they issue the new currency- precious metals will most likely back the supply of currency. You are going to find yourself in an excellent position when that happens. The people without precious metals? Well, they are just going to have to take what they can get. They really won't have much to barter with. That's been the history of precious metals for about as long as man has been walking rare earth. Currencies have been collapsing since the dawn of time. Just because you haven't seen one collapse, doesn't mean you can't or won't. If you have ten years worth of life left in you, I think the chances that you will see a currency collapse or even two- are excellent. Because this time it really is different.